Complexity Digest 2008.42    16-Oct-2008
PDF files of our annual editions are available at www.comdig.de/AnnualEditions.html

Aletter from Gottfried Mayer to our readers and friends is at http://www.comdig.de/GMLetter.html
  Archive: http://comdig.unam.mx
  "I think the next century will be the century of complexity." Stephen Hawking, 2000.
  1. The Rise of the Machines, NY Times
    1. Economic Dis-Equilibrium - Can You Have Your House And Spend It Too?, Edge
  2. Is Google Making Us Smarter? - UCLA Researchers Report That Searching The Internet May Help Improve Brain Function., InformationWeek
    1. Collaboration: Group Theory, Nature
    2. History Of Science: Samurai Mathematician Set Japan Ablaze With Brief, Bright Light, Science
  3. Digging Out Roots of Cheating in High School, NY Times
    1. Entire-Paper Plagiarism Caught By Software, Nature
  4. Developmental Biology: Teeth In Double Trouble, Nature
  5. Lemons, Oranges, and Complexity, Science
    1. Spiraling Costs Threaten Gridlock, Science
  6. Neuroscience: Brain's Defence Against Cocaine, Nature
  7. Immunology: Helpful T Cells Are Sticky, Nature
    1. Immunology: Regulating Suppression, Science
  8. Unpicking The Complexity Of Human Disease, Innovations-report
  9. A Network Solution, Nature
    1. Molecular Biology: DNA Endgames, Nature
  10. Why Starving Cells Prolong Life: Scientists Expose The Role Of Mitochondrial Sirtuins, Innovations-report
  11. Soil Ecology: What Lies Beneath, Nature
    1. Grunting Humans, Moles Scare Earthworms, Science News
  12. Ecology: From Remarkable Rescue to Restoration of Lost Habitat, Science
    1. Ecology: Biodiversity in a Warmer World, Science
  13. Paleontology: Sauropod Gigantism, Science
    1. Collective Behavior in an Early Cambrian Arthropod, Science
  14. Babies And Beethoven: Infants Can Tell Happy Songs From Sad, ScienceDaily
  15. Molecular Circuits For Associative Learning In Single-Celled Organisms, Interface
    1. Circadian Clock May Be Critical For Remembering What You Learn, Researchers Say, ScienceDaily
    2. The Dea[r]th Of Human Understanding, Computer
    3. A Neural Signature Of The Current Self, Social Cog. & Affective Neurosc.
  16. Carbon Nanotube Arrays with Strong Shear Binding-On and Easy Normal Lifting-Off, Science
  17. Vapour Spies To Reveal Climate Clues - Isotope Analysis Will Provide New Tools For Weather Modelling., Nature
    1. How IT Can Cut Carbon Emissions, McKinsey Quarterly
  18. Solid-State Physics: Recipe For Spin Currents, Nature
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
    1. Bug Out - The Balance Between Threats To Security And Liberty Is At A Tipping Point, Times Online
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference Announcements
    4. Other Announcements

  1. The Rise of the Machines, NY Times Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: "BEWARE of geeks bearing formulas." (...)

    The Wall Street geeks, the quantitative analysts ("quants") and masters of "algo trading" probably felt the same irresistible lure of "illimitable power" [as the creators of the atom bomb, Ed.] when they discovered "evolutionary algorithms" that allowed them to create vast empires of wealth by deriving the dependence structures of portfolio credit derivatives.

    (...) no one understands credit default obligations and derivatives, except perhaps Mr. Buffett and the computers who created them.



    1. Economic Dis-Equilibrium - Can You Have Your House And Spend It Too?, Edge Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      And in the beginning, there were tally sticks. This collection of 13th-century Exchequer "stocks" is stored at the National Archives in London.
      Courtesy National Archives, UK
      The roots of the current financial meltdown can be found in John von Neumann's "Model of General Economic Equilibrium," first developed in 1932. (...)

      The problem starts, as the current crisis demonstrates, when unregulated replication is applied to money itself. Highly complex computer-generated financial instruments (known as derivatives) are being produced, not from natural factors of production or other goods, but purely from other financial instruments. When the Exchequer splits the tally stick in two, the King keeps the gold and silver, and you keep one half of the stick.


  2. Is Google Making Us Smarter? - UCLA Researchers Report That Searching The Internet May Help Improve Brain Function., InformationWeek Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The study participants showed similar brain activity when reading, but when searching online, those with prior Internet experience also showed activity in the frontal, the temporal, and the cingulate areas of the brain, areas associated with complex reasoning.

    "Our most striking finding was that Internet searching appears to engage a greater extent of neural circuitry that is not activated during reading -- but only in those with prior Internet experience," Small said to the UCLA news service.



    1. Collaboration: Group Theory, Nature Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: What makes a successful team? John Whitfield looks at research that uses massive online databases and network analysis to come up with some rules of thumb for productive collaborations.

    2. History Of Science: Samurai Mathematician Set Japan Ablaze With Brief, Bright Light, Science Bookmark and Share

      Summary: Isolated from the West, Seki Takakazu churned out some of the finest mathematical work of his time. Centuries later, scholars are finally giving him his due. (...)

      Seki worked on determinants simultaneously with Leibniz, another mathematician whose work went unrecognized for decades because he never published it. "There were striking similarities in mathematical thinking" between the two men, says Eberhard Knobloch, a Leibniz scholar at the Berlin University of Technology. If the Eastern and Western mathematical sages had been in contact, Knobloch says, it probably would have advanced mathematics worldwide.


  3. Digging Out Roots of Cheating in High School, NY Times Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The biggest determinant is not the values that students are exposed to at home, but peer norms at school. Students are under pressure to achieve high grade-point averages, which helps them rationalize their behavior. And the schools themselves are complicit, because they reward high grades more than the process of learning - while too often turning a blind eye to the cheating.

    But there's hope. The 1993 study suggested that cheating dropped in schools that encouraged a culture of integrity - either by formally instituting an honor code or by stressing at every turn the importance of honesty and integrity.


    1. Entire-Paper Plagiarism Caught By Software, Nature Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Garner's team has used its eTBLAST text-matching software to build Deja Vu, a continually updated database that already holds some 75,000 abstracts listed in Medline that seem highly similar. His team has so far found dozens of near-100% clone papers.

  4. Developmental Biology: Teeth In Double Trouble, Nature Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Almost all vertebrates have teeth of some sort. But where, in developmental terms, do teeth come from? Results drawn from experimental embryology provide an illuminating perspective on this contentious question.

  5. Lemons, Oranges, and Complexity, Science Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: But now the clinical trial itself is facing an epidemic - of rising costs and blurred objectives.

    On page 210, David Malakoff reports on the view, as one U.S. researcher puts it, that the "system isn't working." Malakoff describes factors that are driving inflation. Among them are complex rules for reporting, the proliferation of required tests, the difficulty of recruiting and keeping volunteers, and waste in the design and management of trials. But there is an encouraging note, too: Public and private organizations are aware of these problems and are pushing for reform. One counterpoint to problems in the West is a boom in the East.

    1. Spiraling Costs Threaten Gridlock, Science Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The gold standard of medical science--the big randomized trial--is in danger of being priced out of reach by technical complexity, poor management, and paperwork. (...)

      Cardiologist Bart Denys says that if you want to understand why testing new medical treatments can be so discouraging and so expensive these days, just leaf through the proposed clinical trials that pour into his office. Pharmaceutical and medical-device companies seek him out in Thibodaux, Louisiana, because he's an experienced clinical researcher who works for a private institute with access to more than 30,000 patients.


  6. Neuroscience: Brain's Defence Against Cocaine, Nature Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Long-term exposure to cocaine changes the organization of synaptic connections within the addiction circuitry of the brain. This process might protect against the development and persistence of addiction.

  7. Immunology: Helpful T Cells Are Sticky, Nature Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Prolonged physical interaction between helper T cells and antibody-producing B cells is crucial for efficient immune responses. Mutations in a protein that underlies this process cause human disease.

    The production of antibodies by B cells is essential for protective immunity following vaccination or exposure to infectious pathogens. The development of antibody-secreting B cells occurs in discrete areas of lymphoid tissues called germinal centres, the formation of which depends on interactions between B cells and T cells bearing the CD4 molecule on their surface (CD4+ T cells).


    1. Immunology: Regulating Suppression, Science Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The vertebrate immune system has important self-check mechanisms that prevent it from destroying the host's own tissues. Regulatory T cells are part of this suppressive control, and on page 271 in this issue, Wing et al. (1) define the role of cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4)--a protein that is preferentially expressed by regulatory T cells--in restraining the immune response when needed and in maintaining self tolerance.

  8. Unpicking The Complexity Of Human Disease, Innovations-report Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Impressive advances in our understanding of the genetic basis of disease were outlined at the 3rd ESF Functional Genomics Conference (...). The mysteries of the human genome are slowly being revealed - but the more we uncover the more complicated the picture becomes. (...) Functional genomics describes the way in which genes and their products, proteins, interact together in complex networks in living cells. If these interactions are abnormal, diseases can result. "The human genome is just a string of letters which has to be interpreted so that we can understand the function of the genes," said (...).

  9. A Network Solution, Nature Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: With the right plan, systems biology can empower drug discovery, (...).

    Molecular pathways and networks have already been developed and used to model drug actions. For example, a computational model of the ion-channels in the heart has been used to study the role of the late sodium current in cardiac arrhythmia and to explain the previously ill-understood mode of action of the cardio-protective drug ranolazine. Elsewhere, maps of molecular pathways and their interconnection within larger intracellular or intercellular networks are providing a framework for the evaluation of novel therapeutic strategies.

    • Source: A Network Solution, Adriano Henney, Giulio Superti-Furga, DOI: 10.1038/455730a, Nature 455, 730-731, 08/10/09

    1. Molecular Biology: DNA Endgames, Nature Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: If it is not repaired efficiently, damage to DNA double strands can have dire consequences for both the cell and the organism. Given the gravity of this situation, cells use two pathways to start the process. (...)

      Studies in bacteria have shed light on how double-strand breaks are processed for mending, but uncertainty remains over many pivotal aspects of DNA repair in eukaryotic organisms (yeast, plants and animals). Three studies, including one by Mimitou and Symington on page 770 of this issue, unlock some of the mysteries of the initiating steps in eukaryotic DNA repair.


  10. Why Starving Cells Prolong Life: Scientists Expose The Role Of Mitochondrial Sirtuins, Innovations-report Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Cellular damage due to stress is an important factor in ageing processes. It is, thus, amazing that starving, which is a stress factor per se, decelerates ageing processes and extends the lifespan of organisms. It has long been known that proteins from the sirtuin family contribute to this mechanism. To date, the exact function of the seven members of the sirtuin family in mammals has, however, not yet been clarified. (...) The scientists identified initial functions of the two human sirtuins Sirt3 and Sirt5 that reside in mitochondria, the energy supplying "cellular power stations." (...)

  11. Soil Ecology: What Lies Beneath, Nature Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: More creatures live in soil than any other environment on Earth. But what are they all doing there?

    1. Grunting Humans, Moles Scare Earthworms, Science News Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      At the 2008 Sopchoppy Worm Gruntin' Festival in Florida, expert Gary Revell demonstrates the traditional art of hunting worms by rubbing metal over a wooden stake in the ground. The technique makes a grunting noise reminiscent of a predatory mole.The worms rush out of the ground.
      Credit: Catania
      A worm grunter could be a new example of what theorists call a rare enemy, a classic twist in predator-prey dynamics, Catania says. Moles can eat a lot of earthworms so he's not surprised that worms have evolved an urge to rush out of the ground at the first twang of any, even remotely mole-like vibration.

      Compared to moles, though, people haven't played such an important role in earthworm evolutionary history. Thus they count as rare enemies. Their habits don't have the punch of the big mole menace, and people can easily exploit worms' defensive reactions - such as fleeing vibrations, the reaction that works against the more important predator.


  12. Ecology: From Remarkable Rescue to Restoration of Lost Habitat, Science Bookmark and Share

    Summary: Southwest China's alpine lakes have lost many of their native species. Researchers may have found a way to reboot the ecosystem. (...)

    But for more than a decade after their rediscovery, golden-line barbels would not breed in captivity. Then Yang's team at the Yunnan Endemic Species Breeding Center noticed that adults disappear in winter and reappear with hatchlings in spring, says KIZ ichthyologist Chen Xiao-Yong. He speculates that golden-line barbels breed in submerged caves during winter.


    1. Ecology: Biodiversity in a Warmer World, Science Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: There is ample evidence that 20th century warming has shifted ranges of temperate and arctic species, but on page 261 of this issue, Moritz et al. (1) provide an exceptionally thorough example: They take advantage of a well-documented study from a century ago (2) to demonstrate contractions and expansions of elevation range among small mammals in Yosemite National Park, California, USA. In contrast, there have been few attempts to even address the tropics' sensitivity to global climate change (3). Also in this issue (page4) use a novel conceptual approach to analyze climate shifts in tropical ecosystems.

  13. Paleontology: Sauropod Gigantism, Science Bookmark and Share

    Summary: How did sauropod dinosaurs reach body sizes that remain unsurpassed in land-living animals? (...)

    Sauropods had an elephantine body supported by four columnar legs and ending in a long tail. From the body arose a long neck bearing a small skull. Sauropods exhibit diverse oral, dental, and neck designs, indicating dietary niche differentiation; this variety makes reliance on any particular food source (6) as the reason for gigantism unlikely. However, one evolutionarily primitive character truly sets sauropods apart: In contrast to mammals and advanced bird-hipped dinosaurs (duck-billed and horned dinosaurs), they did not masticate their food; nor did they grind it in a gastric mill, as did some other herbivorous dinosaurs (7 ).


    1. Collective Behavior in an Early Cambrian Arthropod, Science Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Examples that indicate collective behavior in the fossil record are rare. A group association of specimens that belong to a previously unknown arthropod from the Chengjiang Lagerstätte, China, provides evidence that such behavior was present in the early Cambrian (about 525 million years ago), coincident with the earliest extensive diversification of the Metazoa, the so-called Cambrian explosion event. The chainlike form of these specimens is unique for any arthropod, fossil or living, and most likely represents behavior associated with migration.

  14. Babies And Beethoven: Infants Can Tell Happy Songs From Sad, ScienceDaily Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A new study shows that 5-month-old babies can distinguish an upbeat tune, such as "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, from a lineup of gloomier compositions. By age 9 months, babies can do the opposite and pick out the sorrowful sound of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony from a pack of happy pieces. The musical experiments offer another example of how babies make sense of the world long before they can talk, says (...). "One of the first things babies understand communicatively is emotion, so for them the melody is the message," Flom said. (...)

  15. Molecular Circuits For Associative Learning In Single-Celled Organisms, Interface Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: We demonstrate how a single-celled organism could undertake associative learning. Although to date only one previous study has found experimental evidence for such learning, there is no reason in principle why it should not occur. We propose a gene regulatory network that is capable of associative learning between any pre-specified set of chemical signals, in a Hebbian manner, within a single cell. A mathematical model is developed, and simulations show a clear learned response. A preliminary design for implementing this model using plasmids within Escherichia coli is presented, along with an alternative approach, based on double-phosphorylated protein kinases.

    1. Circadian Clock May Be Critical For Remembering What You Learn, Researchers Say, ScienceDaily Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The circadian rhythm that quietly pulses inside us all, guiding our daily cycle from sleep to wakefulness and back to sleep again, may be doing much more than just that simple metronomic task, according to Stanford researchers. Working with Siberian hamsters, biologist Norman Ruby has shown that having a functioning circadian system is critical to the hamsters' ability to remember what they have learned. Without it, he said, "They can't remember anything." (...) But hamsters whose circadian system was disabled (...) consistently failed to demonstrate the same evidence of remembering their environment as hamsters with normally functioning circadian systems. (...)

    2. The Dea[r]th Of Human Understanding, Computer Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Personality governs behavior. Neurological considerations suggest that purely active personalities are primitive. Much of behavior is automatic. (...) Conversion of perception into reaction is common to all animal life. Simple animals seem to react entirely automatically, and we are reluctant to consider them as having minds and conscious behavior. More complex animals cannot be denied the possession of minds and consciousness. Humans have often been thought of as distinct from lower animals, as having a different kind of mind. Neuroscientists no longer believe this. The human brain merely has a large capacity for storing experience and exploiting it to influence behavior. (...)

    3. A Neural Signature Of The Current Self, Social Cog. & Affective Neurosc. Bookmark and Share

      Excerpt: Because the self is such a familiar part of everyday experience, it is easy to take its existence for granted. However, upon reflection it becomes apparent just what a puzzle this aspect of human psychology is. From a series of fleeting moments of consciousness individuals construct a notion of the self as a distinct entity that persists across time from the past to the present and into the future. How and why do people do this? Such questions have intrigued psychologists since the beginning of the discipline (...).

  16. Carbon Nanotube Arrays with Strong Shear Binding-On and Easy Normal Lifting-Off, Science Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The ability of gecko lizards to adhere to a vertical solid surface comes from their remarkable feet with aligned microscopic elastic hairs. By using carbon nanotube arrays that are dominated by a straight body segment but with curly entangled top, we have created gecko-foot-mimetic dry adhesives that show macroscopic adhesive forces of 100 newtons per square centimeter, almost 10 times that of a gecko foot, and a much stronger shear adhesion force than the normal adhesion force, to ensure strong binding along the shear direction and easy lifting in the normal direction.
    Editor's Note: But how do they stick to and run across the ceiling?

  17. Vapour Spies To Reveal Climate Clues - Isotope Analysis Will Provide New Tools For Weather Modelling., Nature Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Scientists will begin collecting the first near-real-time measurements of the isotopes in water vapour on Hawaii's Mauna Loa this week, trialling what could prove to be a new way to study climate and weather systems.

    1. How IT Can Cut Carbon Emissions, McKinsey Quarterly Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The rapidly growing carbon footprint associated with information and communications technologies, including laptops and PCs, data centers and computing networks, mobile phones, and telecommunications networks, could make them among the biggest greenhouse gas emitters by 2020. However, our research also suggests that there are opportunities to use these technologies to make the world economy more energy and carbon efficient. An analysis of five groups of abatement opportunities finds that such technologies could help to eliminate 7.8 metric gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions annually by 2020 - equivalent to 15 percent of global emissions today and five times more than our estimate of the emissions from these technologies in 2020.

  18. Solid-State Physics: Recipe For Spin Currents, Nature Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Generating currents that rely on the spins of electrons to make electronic devices requiring less power is both desirable and daunting. A neat way of creating such currents eases that task.

    The field of spintronics - spin electronics - seeks to harness the spin of electrons in metals and semiconductors in order to perform tasks that are, at present, routinely carried out by electrons' charge. Spintronics offers a promising path to achieve further reduction in both the size and power consumption of solid-state devices.


  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks Bookmark and Share


    1. Bug Out - The Balance Between Threats To Security And Liberty Is At A Tipping Point, Times Online Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Ninety-five per cent of serious crime investigations involve communications data, which has also proved critical in terrorism prosecutions. But the overall volume of digital communications is rising exponentially, and police and the security forces fear they cannot keep track of all of it under existing legislation. They worry in particular about little-known ISPs providing cover for clandestine communication networks by failing to store data as required; and about individuals vanishing behind assumed online identities.

  20. Links & Snippets Bookmark and Share


    1. Other Publications Bookmark and Share

      1. The Perils Of Plenty: What Are We Going To Do With All These Genes?, A. Rodrigo, F. Bertels, J. Heled, R. Noder, H. Shearman, P. Tsai, 2008/10/07, Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2008.0173
      2. Indirect Genetic Effects And The Evolution Of Aggression In A Vertebrate System, A. J. Wilson, U. Gelin, M.-C. Perron, D. Réale, 2008/10/07, Proceedings B: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2008.1193
      3. Why Are There So Few Smart Mammals (But So Many Smart Birds)?, K. Isler, C. P. V. Schaik, 2008/10/08, Biological Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0469
      4. First Quantum Encrypted Network Goes Live: Austrian Scientists Get Close To Total Protection, I. Thomson, 2008/10/10, vnunet.com
      5. Scientists Adapt Economics Theory To Trace Brain's Information Flow, 2008/10/10, ScienceDaily & Washington University School of Medicine
      6. Himalaya – Changing Landscapes Photo Exhibition Draws The World’s Attention To The Impacts Of Climate Change In The Himalayas, 2008/10/13, Innovations-report
      7. Machines Edge Closer To Imitating Human Communication, 2008/10/13, ScienceDaily & University of Reading
      8. Why Is The Choice Of Future Climate Scenarios For Species Distribution Modelling Important?, L. J. Beaumont, L. Hughes, A. J. Pitman, Nov. 2008, Online 2008/08/17, Ecology Letters, DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2008.01231
      9. Educational Standards In Private And Public Schools, G. Brunello, L. Rocco, Nov. 2008, Online 2008/10/07, The Economic Journal, DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0297.2008.02194.x

    2. Webcast Announcements Bookmark and Share

      1. Can Ants Solve Traffic Jams?, Danielle Parsons, Slatev.com, 08/07/22

        As roads and highways become ever more clogged, Danielle Parsons tells us how researchers are studying ways to learn from nature's own traffic-flow experts: ants.

      2. 7th Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, MA, 07/10/28-11/02
      3. Reseau Nationale des Systemes Complexes , (in French), 2007
      4. World Economic Forum , Davos, Switzerland, 08/01/22-27
      5. TED Talks, TED Conferences LLC , since 2006
      6. Talking Robots: The PodCast on Robotics and AI, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, 06/11/03
      7. Potentials of Complexity Science for Business, Governments, and the Media 2006, Budapest, Hungary, 06/08/03-05
      8. 6th Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, MA, 06/06/25-30
      9. Artificial Life X, 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems, Bloomington, IN, USA. 2006/06/03-07
      10. 6th Understanding Complex Systems Symposium, Urbana-Champaign, Il, 06/05/15-18
      11. Ralph Abraham on Complexity Digest, , Calcutta, India, 05/12/27
      12. An Afternoon with Michael Crichton, Washington, 05/11/06
      13. Illuminating the Shadow of the Future, Ann Arbor, Mi 05/09/23-25
      14. Open Network of Centres of Excellence in Complex Systems - Brainstorming Meeting, Paris, France 05/09/19-23
      15. Complexity, Science & Society Conference 2005, U. Liverpool, UK 2005/09/11-14
      16. ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, Canterbury, Kent, UK 2005/09/5-9
      17. T. Irene Sanders, Executive Director and Founder, The Washington Center for Complexity & Public Policy, 05/08/27, QuickTime video (10:38 min), Podcast
      18. North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity 2005 Conference, Virtual Conference Network, St. Pete's Beach, Florida, 05/06/09-11
      19. Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and Bioinformatics, Virtual Conference Network, Urbana-Champaign, Il, UIUC, 05/05/16-19
      20. Nonlinearity, Fluctuations, and Complexity, with a celebration of the 65th birthday of Gregoire Nicolis. , Complexity Session, Universite' Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium, 05/03/16
      21. 1st European Conference on Complex Systems, Torino, Italy, 04/12/5-7
      22. From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20
      23. Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28
      24. International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21
      25. Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H., Internet-First University Press, 1994
      26. CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
      27. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998
      28. Edge Videos


    3. Conference Announcements Bookmark and Share

      1. Spatial Evolutionary Dynamics Workshop, Paris, France, 08/10/17
        Webcast: morning, afternoon
      2. OD Network Conference 2008 - Advancing The Theory And Practice Of OD, Austin, Texas, 08/10/19-22
      3. International Congress on Complex Thought, Hermosillo , Sonora , Mexico, 08/10/21-24
      4. What Is Computation? (How) Does Nature Compute? - 2008 Midwest NKS Conference, Bloomington, IN, 08/10/30-11/02
      5. 2nd Intl Congress of Complex Systems in Sport (2nd ICCSS) and 10th European Workshop of Ecological Psychology. (10th EWEP), Funchal, in Madeira Island, Portugal, 08/11/05-08
      6. 2008 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence (WI-08), Sydney, Australia, 08/12/09-12
      7. "Approaching Complexity" Workshop, IT Revolutions, Venice, 08/12/17-19
      8. COMPLEX'2009, First Intl Conf on Complex Systems: Theory and Applications, Shanghai, China, 09/02/23-25
      9. Models and Simulations 3 Conference, Charlottesville, USA 09/03/05-07
      10. 2nd Conf on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-09.org), Arlington, Virginia, 09/03/06-09
      11. 2009 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence, Nashville, Tennessee, USA,09/03/30-04/02
      12. 2nd Chaotic Modeling and Simulation International Conference (CHAOS2009), Chania, Crete, Greece, 09/06/01-05
      13. 2009 Intl Conf of the System Dynamics Society, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 09/07/26-30
      14. 5th Intl Conf on Fractals and Dynamic Systems in Geoscience, Townsville, Australia, 09/08/13-14


    4. Other Announcements Bookmark and Share

      1. A short notice from Dean LeBaron

        Dear ComDig Readers,

        Our editor, Dr. Gottfried Mayer, is affectionately esteemed by many of you -- as readers, you know he devotes himself unselfishly to widening our knowledge of complexity science. He was recently diagnosed with advanced colon cancer and given a timetable of a very few years. Knowing Gottfried, you can imagine that, in addition to the customary processes of chemotherapy, he would explore other frontier therapies, especially those arising out of interdisciplinary applications of complexity. These are expensive ... if he can find them.

        Many of you have sent your good wishes and indicated your desire to assist. With Gottfried's permission, I am posting this note with information, below, about how to send contributions to him. Please indicate the source since Gottfried will want to express his warm gratitude.

        I know that Gottfried, the good scientist that he is, will explain from time to time what he is doing and what the results are ... and we will follow his progress with great interest and hope.

        Dean LeBaron
        Publisher, Complexity Digest

        Bank Information:

        If your contribution is made by check:
        Please mail the check, payable to "Gottfried Mayer", to:
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        (on the back of the check, please write: "For Deposit Only: Account # 983 338 3814")

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        Ref. Gottfried Mayer



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